150-151
AIR TRANSPORT...
CALEDONIAN LEADING INDEPENDENT?
ON the best single measure of size—output in capacity short
ton-miles—Caledonian Airways is now almost certainly the
largest British independent airline. Board of Trade figures just
released show that the airline's output in the first quarter of
this year rose to just over 41 million CTM, narrowly over
taking the traditional leader, British United (just under
40 million CTM).
The Caledonian lead will probably increase further during
the summer months, and there is a fair chance that it will
supplant BUA as the leading independent in the course of this
year. Together Caledonian and BUA account for almost
exactly half of the total output of all the independents, who
in turn account for over 20 per cent of the total British effort;
BOAC accounts for about 60 per cent and BEA for a little
under 20 per cent. The figures for the first quarter of 1970
(capacity short ton-milesx 1 million) are:—
Scheduled Non-scheduled Total
BOAC
BEA
BUA
Caledonian
Other independents
Independent total
National total
465
125
25
12
37
627
8
15
41
74
130
138
465
133
40
41
86
167
765
GET-TOUGH CALL
REPRESENTATIVES of 30,000 US airline pilots meeting in
San Francisco for their annual Air Safety Forum last week
ignored the soft line on hijacking propounded at the Ifalpa
conference in London earlier this year.
Captain Grady B. Stone of Eastern Airlines and chairman
of Alpa's hijacking committee said: "International civil aviation
is threatened unless something is done about hijacking and
sabotage." The pilots called for bullet-proof cockpits, better
protection devices and tougher prosecution.
Public confidence in air transport had been eroded by at
least 205 hijacking attempts since 1930, 155 of which had been
successful, said Captain Stone. Some 210 persons had died in
six US crashes classified as sabotage since 1955. Hijacking had
accounted for one death.
Neither airlines nor governments had acted decisively to
develop legal and technical deterrents to air pirates, he added.
CAB PREPARES TO HIT BACK
FURTHER powers to regulate the activities of foreign
scheduled airlines operating into the USA are being sought by
the Civil Aeronautics Board. The board has proposed a
regulation which would enable it to make such airlines file
requests for permission to operate on-route charters. All off-
route charters are already subject to prior approval, as are those
by foreign non-scheduled airlines, should the CAB so require.
The board's action follows an earlier regulation, approved
by the US President, Mr Nixon, in June, conferring powers
to predetermine the frequency of service offered by foreign
airlines. As the CAB stressed at that time, the measure was
taken to "combat foreign governmental restrictionism" and to
provide the opportunity of taking retaliatory action against
such attitudes.
The new regulation is directed towards the same end, and the
CAB points out that it represents powers no greater than
those already exercised by many foreign governments. "To an
increasing extent," says the board, "some governments have
been exercising their powers in a manner which sharply
restricts the charter operations of US carriers. Indeed, some
States are acting in concert to impose restrictions which would
severely limit the availability of oharters to the public; and
other States have imposed an outright ban on various charters
of certain US carriers." As with the earlier regulation,
possession of an effective deterrent is the main motive. The
CAB says that it will be "a regulatory device appropriate to
FLIGHT International. 30 July 1970
the requirements of the rapidly developing charter market, and
responsive to CAB determ-nations based on the principles of
comity and reciprocity."
The US supplemental airlines are not mentioned specifically
by the board; but their right to a share of the air transport
market was reaffirmed in the recent restatement of US policy
(reported in Flight for July 2, page 7): "Scheduled and
chartered services are of vital importance. . . . Both scheduled
and supplemental carriers should be permitted fair opportunity
to compete in the bulk transportation market." It is the
supplemental airlines who have been meeting restrictive
government attitudes towards charters, notably in Europe. Such
attitudes generally stem from the desire to protect a national
scheduled carrier; and it is against such carriers that the CAB
is now taking more powers for retaliation.
The National Air Carrier Association, which represents the
supplemental airlines, issued a statement welcoming "this
implementation of the President's new international air trans
port policy." Naca said that the regulation would provide a
long-needed economic tool "to counter the artificial restric
tions being imposed on low-cost charters."
UNITED IN THE RED
A NET loss of S20.7 million (£8.3 million) in the first half
of the year has been reported by United Air Lines. The figure
compares with a SI6.5 million (£6.9 million) profit in the
equivalent period last year. The president of the airline, Mr
George Keck, said that United (which is predominantly a
domestic carrier) needed an interim rise in US domestic fares
even before the CAB completed its current investigation en
the subject, and would apply to the board accordingly.
Mr Keck attributed the loss to a general deterioration in the
economic situation in the USA, additional competition follow
ing recent route awards to other airlines, air traffic co-control
problems and rising costs. The way in which the airline's
operating costs have outstripped revenue has been marked;
costs rose 13.2 per cent in the half-year compared with the first
half of 1969, while revenue rose only 1.8 per cent. There was
a 7.4 per cent fall in the number of passengers carried, but
freight carried rose by 17.8 per cent.
• American Airlines reported a net loss of $1.7 million
(£710,000) for the first half of this year.
Two Fokker F.28s have been ordered by a new West German
charter operator, Aviaction-Hanseatische Luftreederei GmbH
of Hamburg. They are due for delivery next year.
Dan-Air Recommended A CAB examiner has recommended
that Dan-Air be granted a foreign air-carrier permit for opera
tions into and out of the USA. His finding has yet to be
approved by the CAB and the White House.1
All Nippon Re-order? All Nippon is planning to buy eight
727s and three 737s next year, according to reports from
Japan. The airline at present has 15 727s (eight leased from
Pacific Southwest) and six 737s, with four 737s already on
order.
Eastern Improvement Net profit returned by Eastern Airlines
in the first half of this year was $16.9 million (£7 million),
compared with only $2.4 million (£1 million) in the same
period last year. The airline's chief financial officer, Mr Charles
J. Simons, said that improved earnings, although still low,
reflected the effectiveness of very strong cost-control and
market-development programmes.
No Ships for ONA Overseas National Airways has sold its
50 per cent interest in two cruise liners under construction to
Cunard Steamship Co, the airline has said. ONA added that
the decision was taken because of the present economic situa
tion, but that its faith in the future of air-sea holiday travel
was undiminished. The investment funds recovered from the
sale, ONA's president, Mr Steedman Hinckley, said, have "sub
stantially solved what was developing into a liquidity problem
for ONA."